Malaria Vaccine

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QUESTION

Is there a vaccine for malaria?

ANSWER

No, as of yet there is not a vaccine available for malaria. The most promising vaccine candidate, RTS,S, which has been developed by GlaxoSmithKline, is currently undergoing Phase III trials in Africa. The trial is not due to finish until 2014, so we will have to wait until then to know how effective it is. Preliminary results, published last year, suggested that it may prevent up to 50% of malaria cases in young children, though the long term protection level is not known. Other age groups will also have to be analyzed, as well as the effect of the vaccine on malaria mortality levels.

Malaria Vaccine

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QUESTION

What is the shot you get to prevent malaria?

ANSWER

There is currently no shot available to prevent malaria. The most promising vaccine candidate, called RTS,S and being developed by GlaxoSmithKline, is currently undergoing Phase III trials in children in Africa.

Preliminary results have indicated it may prevent up to 50% of malaria cases, though this varies by age group and long term data are not yet available. The full results of the study will be published in 2014.

Vaccine for Malaria

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QUESTION

Is there a vaccine to prevent malaria?

ANSWER

No, there is not currently a vaccine available to prevent malaria. The best current candidate, the RTS,S vaccine which was developed by GlaxoSmithKline, is currently undergoing Phase III clinical trials in Africa. Although preliminary results showed up to a 50% rate of protection against malaria in some age groups, the trials will not conclude until 2014 and so full results will not be known until after that date.

Why not create a vaccine for malaria?

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QUESTION

Why not create a vaccine for malaria?

ANSWER

There are many teams of scientists working hard to try to produce a malaria vaccine. In fact, only last year, the preliminary results of a vaccine trial were published. The vaccine, called RTS,S, has been produced by GlaxoSmithKline and is in the midst of Phase III trials in Africa.

The preliminary results showed approximately a 50% reduction in malaria incidence, though it is not clear how much of that protection came from the vaccine and how much should be attributed to the vaccine adjunct (a compound given with the vaccine to boost immune responses). The preliminary results also did not include analysis of how much the vaccine prevented mortality due to malaria, and levels of protection against severe malaria appeared to be low.

However, we will have to wait until 2014 for the full and final results of the clinical trial to be made available. In the meantime, other vaccine candidates are being developed, but there are many challenges to overcome. For example, there are five different types of malaria that infect people: these differ significantly in the way they develop in the human host, and so a vaccine appropriate for one may not be effective against the others.

Most vaccine researchers are focusing on Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly form of malaria, and a vaccine effective against this parasite would certainly do the most to reduce malaria-related mortality. However, Plasmodium vivax also causes high morbidity, particularly in Asia and the Pacific, and so should not be overlooked. Moreover, within each of these species exist different strains in different areas, each of which can be markedly different from a genetic perspective.

Finally, we do not yet fully understand the complex ways in which our immune system reacts to malaria. As such, this presents a challenge to developing an effective malaria vaccine, though many scientists are willing to address this challenge and have made big inroads in the search for a safe, effective vaccine.

Another stumbling block has been inadequate financial commitment; increased resources devoted towards vaccine development would help overcome the scientific and technical obstacles in our way. PATH, coordinating the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, mentions for example that it can cost up to half a billion dollars ($500,000,000!) to fund a vaccine through the full process of development, testing and clinical trials through to licensing.

Malaria Vaccine Research

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QUESTION

Is there any research to produce anti malaria vaccine, if not, why?

ANSWER

There are many teams of scientists working hard to try to produce a malaria vaccine. In fact, only last year, the preliminary results of a vaccine trial were published. The vaccine, called RTS,S, has been produced by GlaxoSmithKline and is in the midst of Phase III trials in Africa. The preliminary results showed approximately a 50% reduction in malaria incidence, though it is not clear how much of that protection came from the vaccine and how much should be attributed to the vaccine adjunct (a compound given with the vaccine to boost immune responses).

The preliminary results also did not include analysis of how much the vaccine prevented mortality due to malaria, and levels of protection against severe malaria appeared to be low. However, we will have to wait until 2014 for the full and final results of the clinical trial to be made available. In the meantime, other vaccine candidates are being developed, but there are many challenges to overcome.

For example, there are five different types of malaria that infect people: these differ significantly in the way they develop in the human host, and so a vaccine appropriate for one may not be effective against the others. Most vaccine researchers are focusing on Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly form of malaria, and a vaccine effective against this parasite would certainly do the most to reduce malaria-related mortality. However, Plasmodium vivax also causes high morbidity, particularly in Asia and the Pacific, and so should not be overlooked.

Moreover, within each of these species exist different strains in different areas, each of which can be markedly different from a genetic perspective. Finally, we do not yet fully understand the complex ways in which our immune system reacts to malaria. As such, this presents a challenge to developing an effective malaria vaccine, though many scientists are willing to address this challenge and have made big inroads in the search for a safe, effective vaccine. For more information on current efforts to develop a malaria vaccine, please see PATH’s Malaria Vaccine Initiative.

How to Control Malaria

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QUESTION

Suggestions to control malaria?

ANSWER

This answer is copied from an earlier question asking about strategies for controlling malaria in Africa. The methods below are being used by many health ministries, international agencies and non-governmental organisations to combat malaria all over the world (and not just in Africa).

Currently, malaria control is based on a combination of prevention, education, research and treatment. In more detail:

Prevention: This is arguably one of the keys to sustainably reducing malaria burdens and even eliminating infections. Central to this goal has been the distribution of long-lasting insecticide treated bednets, which prevent people from being bitten by infected mosquitoes while they sleep at night. Unfortunately, some recent research has just been published which suggests that bednets might be contributing to insecticide resistance in mosquitoes, as well as increased rates of malaria in adults due to decreasing natural immunity. As such, it may be that more research is needed in order to determine the most effective and efficient ways of using bednets to prevent malaria infection, particularly in high-risk groups like young children and pregnant women. Another arm of prevention is reducing the number of mosquitoes in an area (called vector control), and thus preventing transmission from occurring at all – this can be achieved through insecticide spraying but also filling in the stagnant pools of water that mosquitoes lay their eggs in. Vector control was highly successful in reducing malaria transmission in the United States and Mediterranean in the years after World War II.

Education: Through education, people living in at-risk areas for malaria transmission can learn about ways to prevent the disease, as well as what to do if they suspect they are infected. Similarly, education is important for travellers visiting malarial areas, so they know the best ways in which to avoid being infected.

Research: Understanding the distribution, factors affecting transmission and the development of new strategies for control and treatment is going to be crucial in the fight against malaria, and particularly in high-burden areas such as Africa. Similarly, scientists are busily looking for new compounds to treat malaria, as well as the ever-elusive malaria vaccine. If such a vaccine could be developed, it would be a huge step forward in the fight against malaria; recently, a study was published which reported the results of the first Phase 3 clinical trial of a malaria vaccine, in African children. The vaccine appeared to confer approximately a 50% level of protection against malaria; while this is a start, it perhaps did not live up to many people’s hopes of a new method for controlling malaria.

Treatment: Hand in hand with treatment comes diagnosis; if a person can have their infection easily, accurately and cheaply diagnosed, then they will be able to access effective treatment more rapidly, thus improving their chances of a swift recovery. As such, countries in Africa are working hard to provide health systems capable of local diagnosis and availability of treatment, so that people don’t have to travel far to have their infections cured.

Taken together, these four strategies are having some success even in the world’s poorest and most malaria-endemic regions, especially in decreasing the number of malaria deaths. Decreasing the overall number of infections will be yet a greater challenge, but one which the world, especially through commitment to the Millenium Development Goals, is dedicated to overcoming.

 

 

How to Prevent Malaria

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QUESTION

How to prevent malaria?

ANSWER

Despite its wide geographic range and potentially severe consequences, there are actually several effective strategies for controlling malaria, many of which have been successful of reducing the burden of the disease, and especially the number of deaths, in various regions.

The first step towards control is prevention. This has largely been achieved through the distribution of long-lasting insecticide treated bednets, which prevent people from being bitten by infected mosquitoes as they sleep at night. While this has drastically reduced the number of cases of malaria in some settings, and particularly in certain high risk groups such as children under five and pregnant women, some worrying new data just was published which suggested that in high transmission zones, bednets may actually exacerbate re-infection rates for older children and adults, and lead to insecticide resistance in mosquitoes. As such, while bednets clearly are still a key prevention strategy, their effect should be closely monitored.

Secondly, there is diagnosis and treatment. These go hand in hand, as they usually require the availability of health services or health professionals. If malaria infections are rapidly and accurately diagnosed, appropriate treatment can be swiftly given, preventing the progression of the disease and allowing the patient to recover. Appropriate administration of medication, as well as adherence to the full course of the drugs, can also help to prevent drug-resistance from emerging.

Finally, there are on-going research initiatives looking to find new ways to tackle malaria. For example, many scientists are involved in the search for a malaria vaccine, which, if safe, effective, and sufficiently cheap, could transform the way we think about fighting malaria. Similarly, due to the unfortunate circumstance of ever-increasing drug-resistance, particularly in Plasmodium falciparum, new types of medication are constantly being tested and trialled. The combination of all these efforts has managed to reduce the mortality of malaria greatly over the past few years; the aim now, espoused by organisations such as Malaria No More, is to get to a point where deaths from malaria are eliminated by the year 2015.

 

Typhoid and Malaria

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QUESTION:

Since i was suffering with fever for 5 days I consulted a doctor, have undergone blood test, and got typhoid as positive, but the treatment didn’t work. I was tested for malaria and result was positive. Ii’ve been given chloroquine for three days and primaquine for 28 days. After chloroquine was completed I started using primaquine. During this time I got fever and I got typhoid positive. My question is though iI’ve been treated for typhoid before malaria is conformed why it has come again?

ANSWER:

Typhoid and malaria are very different illnesses, caused by different disease organisms. Typhoid is caused by a Salmonella bacterium, whereas malaria is caused by single-celled animals, called protozoa, of the genus Plasmodium.

Typhoid is usually transmitted by eating food or drinking water which has been contaminated by sewage or handled by someone else with typhoid fever. It is usually treated with antibiotics; however, these antibiotics do not prevent re-infection with the disease. The best way to prevent re-infection is through washing food thoroughly in clean (boiled) water and by washing hands regularly, especially after going to the bathroom. There is also a vaccine against typhoid which you can get which will prevent further re-infection. As such, if you think you have typhoid again, you will need to visit your doctor again for more treatment, as it is unrelated to your malaria infection (apart that you might have been weakened by one infection, leaving you more susceptible to a second disease). While at the doctor, you should also have another test for malaria to ensure that the treatment was successful.

ARCEVA for malaria

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QUESTION:

Is ARCEVA a good vaccine for malaria?

ANSWER:

ARCEVA isn’t a vaccine for malaria, but it is a brand name of one type of medication used to treat the disease. It belongs to the group of drugs called artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), which are recommended by the World Health Organisation to treat uncomplicated malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum, the most dangerous form of malaria. ARCEVA specifically contains artemether combined with lumefantrine. It is very important to know that there is no effective vaccine against malaria that is currently available; many scientists and researchers are vigorously hunting for such a vaccine, knowing that this would radically decrease the number of cases of malaria worldwide.